Cycle-4 Science Planning

Time/Place

IoA, Cambridge, Hoyle Committee Room: Tue May 23 2006 10.00-16.00

Attendees

NicholasWalton, AnitaRichards, SilviaDalla, EduardoGonzalez, JonathanTedds, KeithNoddle, TonyLinde, RichardMcMahon, NoelWinstanley, GuyRixon

Agenda

1. 10.00-10.30 Review of Cycle 3 deliverables against plan: NW/KN
2. 10.30-11.30 Overview of key Science themes in Cycle 4: NW
3. 11.30-12.30 Update of Task Matrix: ALL
4. 12.30-13.00 and 14.00-15.00 Science Story analysis: ALL
5. 15.00-16.00 IVOA followup analysis [telecon call in]

Lunch will be 13.00-14.00

Notes and Presentations

• Cycle 4 priorities: [.pdf]
• Analysis of Workshop feedback from EduardoGonzalez: [.pdf]
• CycleFourDataEtc - requirements from workshops and VOTech especially but not exclusively Galactic

1. NW Expanded targets by end 2006
   • 400 astronomer users
   • 15 papers
   • Link acknowledgement to top of software page and every time Workbench or major App e.g. TopCat is opened KN
   • Continue to improve documentation JAT, with help from GG, NoelW , AMSR et al.
   • Need to be able to support hundreds of users - expand 'testbed' (figure out what this implies at technical meeting).
2. KTN Review
   • Check that links from previous workshops etc. are removed if pages are gone. G
   • Redesign pages - ensure they are explicit for audience (no undefined acronymns more obscure than HST).
   • Try and get Pedro Osuna over - after Consortium? depending on how long for, for
     1. Asynchronicity (SkyNode etc.) GTR
     2. VOSpec KN
     3. Photometry translations (mag-physical units etc.) AMSR, EG, MT
     4. Catalogue DM
   • Fitting models to chisq SEDs - NAW/RMcM AMSR talk to MT
     • See e.g. SpecFit ? XSpec?
     • Make sure that there is a reference e.g. Numerical recipes or a refereed paper
   • Flux at a point (from images) (non-interactive) WHO
     • One-size-fits-all - DAOPhot?
     • Improved library of configs for SExtractor
     • Run extraction at data centres by specialised tools
       • Discuss with LEDAS, JBO etc....

Data and Registry

1. Major Registry schema update coming (TL please give link)
2. Need matrix of available data, what services (Cone, ADQL etc.) and ideally automatic updating from Registry). KTN
3. Need to be able to find data with required coverage (spatial and/or spectral and/or temporal) and other simple restrictions KB AMSR SD NoelW GTR
   • Hence need to identify minimum of Registry detail needed to meet at least some of this and get filled in.
   • How to query? ADQL? for automatic selection
   • How to visualise?
   • Speed of search
4. Need overview of Registry so that users can see the sort of thing which is possible GTR
   • Find use cases AMSR see RegistryUseCases
5. Automatic extraction of coverage GTR SD
   • Only practical for spatial at present?
   • Run through UCD finder first if necessary
   • See if it is a practical exchange of effort with ALMA people at Manc
6. Data-related apps
   • Expand ColourCutter -more input catalogues (need ADQL)
   • Astrofederator
     • 2MASS/SDSS/WFCAM
     • STILTS crossmatch
   • Montage CEA wrapper
7. All-sky selections (limited by Registry accuracy and DSA interfaces)
   • Use AstroScope to select some resources e.g. catalogues
   • Construct workflow to send large list of positions to selected resources
   • Waveband restriction for AstroScope - but currently limited by data provider metadata
   • Output data format filter also needed - e.g. fits images only not jpegs from particular service
8. Capture AstroScope GUI use as workflow
   • user refines an individual positional search using AstroScope exploration, visualisation and filtering capability
   • capture above search as workflow type module
   • sequence module for multiple input positions
   • becomes powerful introduction to AstroGrid tools for new users - once they have captured own workflow it encourages linking to other VO tools and functionality
   • many users including SAG have already requested this capability
9. Workflow issues
   • Investigate Taverna GTR NoelW
   • Multi-iteration loops - oversize transcript
   • Tools to save scripting for common VOTable ops
10. Solar
    • Stereo Chris Davis RAL
    • Library of movies of flares SD
11. Apps
    • SExtractor, BPZ etc: need a small number of default setups suitable for most popular data e.g. INT, HST, SDSS for non-experts
12. Tools call - equivalent of 1 fte needed for support
    • 9 proposals submitted, i.e. 3 times over-subscribed!
13. Monitoring/overview introduced
14. AR development
    • get Doug Tody over
      • Could also overlap with RadioNet /VO workshop
    • ESO/SAMPO Richard Hook
15. VOSpace
    • Matthew Graham
16. VOQL
    • Christophe